A Texarkana, Texas man died in a house fire in the 2000 block of Olive Street early Tuesday morning. Texarkana, Texas Fire Department was dispatched to the fire just before 4 a.m. Tuesday morning. Two houses burned in the fire. A body believed to be that of the homeowner, 69-year-old Jim Parker, was found in one of the homes. The body will be sent to Dallas for an autopsy. The home of Parker was completely destroyed and the other heavily damaged. Fire investigators remain on scene although they say finding a cause is unlikely due to the heavy damage the fire caused.  

More than 100 San Antonio firefighters battled an apartment fire in record temperature heat Monday afternoon on the North Side. Sky 12 live video showed very heavy damage to a large portion of the top floor of one of the buildings in the complex located in the 11800 block of Parliament. San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said eight units were destroyed and 16 others sustained smoke and water damage. Firefighters not only battled the fire, but the oppressive heat, as well. According to the KSAT 12 meteorologist Sarah Spivey, the temperature at the time of the fire was 106 degrees, which tied the record high temperature for July in San Antonio and the hottest temperature in the Alamo City since 2013.  

As the spread of COVID-19 continues to pose challenges for public workers in the city of Houston and beyond, officials with the Cy-Fair Fire Department said staffing levels remain strong as of early July. The department had 12 of its roughly 600 members in quarantine as of July 9, including both positive and presumptive positive cases, Fire Chief Amy Ramon said. None of the 12 cases are related to the transport of patients while on duty, but were instead tied to community exposure, Ramon said. "Our trucks are still fully staffed," she said. "We're not having problems filling any shifts at all. It's been quite amazing. Everybody in our department—doesn't matter if you're paid or volunteer—have really stepped up during COVID[-19]." Call volumes dropped substantially during the shutdown that ran from late March through April, but Ramon said calls have since increased to slightly above normal levels.  

Another exemplary employee of the City of Bonham was singled out for dedication and service on Monday when Jeremy Myers was named City of Bonham Employee for the Month of June 2020. The announcement came during a regular meeting of Bonham City Council held Monday, July 13, 2020. Jeremy is a Firefighter/EMT with the Bonham Fire Department and has been with the City of Bonham since August of 2019. Jeremy is described by his supervisors and peers to be of high moral character, good humored, highly productive, and possessing a great work ethic. Jeremy was nominated for a recent EMS call where he showed his true character by providing patient care to an elderly patient who could not care for himself and had no family to help. Jeremy cleaned and redressed the patient and then changed his linens and sanitized his bed.  

Cancer has taken over as the number one killer of firefighters. Lieutenant Brian Gross with Lubbock Fire Rescue was diagnosed early last year with clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a cancer of the kidney. "7:30 at night here at the fire station I get a phone call. And it's a phone call that I don't want another firemen to ever get," he said. Now, he's an advocate in encouraging his fellow firefighters to "know where they stand" with their health. "When you have that call that says 'hey, you got cancer'... it will change your life," Lt. Gross said. After years of battling fires, he's spent 16 months battling the disease hoping to influence other to get themselves checked before it's too late. "If I can prevent one firemen, or one person anywhere, then not only my career -- my life as a protector of my community is well served," he said.  

Tuesday's surprise at Texas Health Frisco all started with a Whataburger craving. Captain Troy Hammons is a 23-year veteran of the Lake Cities Fire Department. At the beginning of June, an MRI showed a torn calf muscle, which eventually led to a severe infection. Six surgeries later, Hammons and his family had to make a tough decision. "We had to make the horrible, traumatic decision of amputating below the knee," Hammons' wife Raychel said. Hammons has been in the hospital for a month. Due to COVID-19 hospital restrictions, he's only been able to see his 14-year-old daughter one time. "It's been the worst thing we've ever gone through as a family," Raychel said. "It's been devastating." Last week, Fire Chief Michael Ross called Hammons to cheer him up.  

VIDEO: Firefighters are trained to rescue people from burning buildings, and they do it without hesitation. It's much more personal when it's one of their own. Dekalb County firefighter Viv Evans was battling a blaze in Stone Mountain when she got injured. Evans says even while flames were swirling around her, she knew without a doubt her fellow firefighters would get her out. "We pulled up and you could see it, flames through the roof," said Evans. Evans and other firefighters rushed into the burning townhomes in Stone Mountain. "We knew we could make a good push and get the fire put out," said firefighter Chase Rawlins. Evans was only inside a couple of minutes when she went down. "When I turned, my leg went snap and I fell backward on top of my pack," said Evans. Rawlins could hear her screams over the roar of the flames. "The scream that came from her, I knew she was in a lot of pain and I knew I had to get her out of there," said Rawlins.  

A fire suppression system was inoperable when a blaze erupted aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego, so sailors fought the blaze with water, a top Navy official said Monday. Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck said the Halon gas system had been turned off because it was being worked on while the amphibious assault ship was undergoing maintenance work. The fire erupted Sunday morning and continues to burn. It broke out in a lower cargo area where cardboard and drywall supplies were stored and firefighters initially fought it with water until they had to withdraw, Sobeck said. Halon is a liquefied compressed gas that disrupts the chemical process of a fire. At least 57 people were treated for heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation and minor injuries. Five remained in hospitalized under observation. Sobeck said fire had spread throughout the ship Monday.  

VIDEO: A tense rescue unfolded on Monday morning at a high-rise building in North Palm Beach. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Derek Wiley said rescuers were dispatched to a 23-story building in the 100 block of Lakeshore Drive about 10 a.m. Wiley said a window washer was hanging from the 15th floor of the building, yelling for help. Slowly and carefully, a firefighter lowered himself from the roof of the high-rise, made contact with the worker on the side of the building and then safely lowered him to the ground. Exclusive video from WPTV Chopper 5 showed the window washer walking away from the building once he was on the ground, appearing to be OK. It's unclear why the worker got stuck on the side of the high-rise.  

The UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health have launched the Heroes Health Initiative to help support the mental health of first responders and health care workers during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The app is available through the App Store/Google Play Store in the United States, free of charge to first responders, health care workers and their organizations. For individual health care workers, the Heroes Health app delivers short mental health self-assessments each week and displays symptom summary reports to help them better understand the state of their own mental health and changes over time. The app also provides links to immediate support and mental health resources, emphasizing free and low-cost services. Individual health care workers who choose to participate in the initiative download the free Heroes Health app to their iOS (Apple) or Android-compatible smartphone.  

Knowing which mask is best to prevent person-to-person transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus is still an open question for most, but slow-motion video shared on YouTube early in July provides a visual basis to judge how best to keep safe amid the global pandemic. Professor Joe Hanson of the YouTube channel "It's Okay To Be Smart" released a video earlier in July, reviewing the basics of why people should wear masks — in a visual review and primer and recent studies on the effectiveness of masks to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. It's rare for sneezes and even coughs to be visible to the naked eye — which happens when oral expulsions move through a ray of light. Hanson and his team decided to demonstrate how breath leaves the body using the Schlieren imaging technique combined with slow-motion cameras set to roughly 250 frames per second.